3D Hand-Held Laser Scanning Technology to Monitor Abrasion and Component Wear at Remote Mine-Sites

International Materials & Technology, trading as Imatech, was incorporated in 1994 by the founder and current managing director, Warwick Rule. Warwick's work experience convinced him that there were great opportunities for advanced materials for the protection of process equipment in industry.  After focused market research into the best available materials technologies worldwide, Warwick signed a distribution agreement with A.W. Chesterton Company, USA for representation of their Advanced Reinforced Composites (ARC) and Technical Maintenance Products in New South Wales, Australia and Imatech was born.

Over the past 18 years, Imatech has grown into a diversified industrial systems and services company focused on delivering smarter solutions using the best available technologies combined with the unique problem-solving skills of its workforce.

Imatech's current workforce is over 140 personnel located throughout Australia,  Imatech has secured distribution rights to a great number of the best available industrial technologies, and what really sets Imatech apart from the rest is the quality, skills and commitment contained in its workforce.  This powerful combination of technology and skilled human resources provides significant growth potential for the company well into the future.

In March 2011 Imatech Engineered Solutions was formed as a R&D, Engineering & Manufacturing facility that complemented Imatech's current business departments to offer a Complete Engineering Solution service in the wear/abrasion industry sector, with a focus on extending the service lifecycle of Assets in accordance with their client's expectations.  With this in mind Warwick Rule saw a growing need for portable measuring and scanning equipment in order to be able to collect data in the field for maintenance and repair work.   Some of the Engineered Solutions team members had previous experience with hand-held laser scanning systems and knew that the ZScanner 800 system would be ideal for projects where they have to go to remote mine sites in Australia and overseas to collect data on abrasion or wear on components and systems then bring the data back to the office for later processing.

Imatech approached Hi-Tech Metrology at this time to purchase a ZScanner 800 - the highest resolution and accuracy system available in the five model ZScanner range in order to help meets the needs of their customers and to provide better quality information from site in order to make more informed decisions on the condition of the plant in the field.  The ZScanner 800 is a hand-held 3D laser scanning system that is sold and supported in Australia and New Zealand by Hi-Tech Metrology.  Hi-Tech Metrology has been selling and supporting the complete range of 3D hand-held laser scanning systems from 3D Systems (and previously Z Corporation) for over 5-years now and has many successful installations around Australia and New Zealand in a diverse range of industries such as mining equipment maintenance, wear and part conditioning assessment / monitoring in the mining and oil and gas sectors, automotive and truck and bus original equipment and after-market accessories, and innovative uses of the technology in a range of research applications such as palaeontology.

After having the ZScanner 800 unit for over 12-months now Malcolm Greenacre (Sales Manager) comments..."the ZScanner system allows us the flexibility to visit our clients within Australia and overseas sites, recently we had to scan in service, a tails hopper for a client in Western Australia where there were no drawings available.  This process enables us to obtain information on the condition and the as-built orientation of key components and systems in the field.  Without this tool we would still be using tape measures and photographs to try and piece together the information that we need back in the office.  The hand-held scanning solution allows us to quickly gather an enormous amount of 3D spatial data that accurately portrays the exact condition and the orientation of the part in the field - it takes all of the guess-work out of the equation and allows us to offer new enhanced design components using one of our range of advanced reinforced composite coatings or rubber backed ceramic wear plate products.

Our clients now get both accurate and timely information using hand-held laser scanning systems that allows them to make informed decisions or further analysis for wear characteristics or the condition of the component.  Studies of the monitoring of wear every three months for example allows us to advise clients on the predictive service life of components and helps improve the reliability and serviceability of equipment operating in the field.  This tool is a valuable time saver for us as well as a tremendous asset to help our clients achieve significant improvements in equipment uptime" comments Greenacre.